Full Snow Moon Links

I'm not going to use the title supermoon, because that is a bunch of media hype, but here are some super links:

What happens to Loogootee water tower when Jack Butcher's wins record falls? and Doyel: State's winningest coach had no intentions of leaving home and J.R. Holmes will soon become second boys basketball coach in state to reach 800 wins – Indy Star.  80% of the decent stories I get from the Star are about high school basketball.  The rest are about stupid Indiana laws.

Should a Catholic priest be fighting in a boxing tournament? – America.  As a Bengal Bouts alum, I say hell yes.  (Career record 0-4. 0-5 counting the novice matches in the fall of freshman year)

‘It Will Cause a Scandal.’ The Pope and a Trusted U.S. Cardinal Clash Over Sex-Abuse Crisis – Wall Street Journal 

Massive Loss Of Thousands Of Hives Afflicts Orchard Growers And Beekeepers - The Salt

‘Food and the Wisconsin Idea’ talk discusses Wisconsin farming, solutions to dairy crisis – The Badger Herald  and Food Banks Are Overflowing With Milk - Weekend Edition Sunday

Private Mossad for Hire – The New Yorker  

In Need of Workers, the Midwest Recruits From Puerto Rico - Wall Street Journal (h/t cmoore)

Alabama newspaper editor calls for Klan return to 'clean out D.C.' - Montgomery Advertiser

Bolsonaro’s Brazil - London Review of Books

How the US has hidden its empire - The Guardian

Research, Extension, and Related Matters: Title VII - USDA ERS

Early February Links

Some of my favorite stories from the previous week:

After the abuse Jackie Robinson endured, Frank Robinson refused to take it - Chicago Tribune

Farmers nearing crisis push back on Trump trade policies – Politico and ‘This One Here Is Gonna Kick My Butt’—Farm Belt Bankruptcies Are Soaring – Wall Street Journal

Is Fear Driving Sales Of Monsanto's Dicamba-Proof Soybeans? - The Salt

Long, strange trip: How U.S. ethanol reaches China tariff-free - Reuters

A Water Crisis Is Growing In A Place You'd Least Expect It - NPR

In Era of Drought, Phoenix Prepares for a Future Without Colorado River Water - Yale Environment 360.  Part 4 in a series.

CNX reports suspected cause of Utica Shale well problem near Beaver Run Reservoir - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

How ‘Interior Landmarks’ Redeemed New York – The American Conservative and  Architectural history hidden by Detroit ceilings for years - Detroit Free Press

Fight the Ship - Death and valor on a warship doomed by its own Navy. – ProPublica

The Five Families of Feces – New York Magazine  

Abuse of Faith - Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.  This is Spotlight-level investigative reporting.

A Tennessee clinic swindled the military out of $65M. This is how it got caught – The Tennessean

Simon Institute research shows state funding disparities benefit downstate - SIU News.  According to this, the suburbs, and to some extent Chicago, get hammered to benefit rural areas.





‘My whole town practically lived there’: From Costa Rica to New Jersey, a pipeline of illegal workers for Trump goes back years - Washington Post

The hypocrisy of Trump’s jobs claims, in one chart - Vox (chart from Aaron Sojourner)

MLK Day Links

Interesting stories from the last week:

Don’t Worry, MLB — Hitters Are Killing The Shift On Their Own – FiveThirtyEight

Government shutdown puts ranchers in a bind – Rapid City Journal

What Life Is Like When Corn Is Off the Table – The Atlantic (h/t Kaye)

Is Trump Trying To Politicize Agricultural Data? Some Former USDA Officials Suspect Yes. – FiveThirtyEight

Quinoa Whiskey? Modified Crop List Spurs Distilleries To Try Alternative Grains - The Salt

On Prohibition's 100th anniversary, Supreme Court tackles state liquor laws - USA Today
How the Klan Fueled Prohibition – New York Times

In Rural America, There Are Few People Left to Drive the Ambulances - The New Yorker

A Farmer Found a Trojan Horse Inside an Insurance Contract.  Now He Might Bring Down the Canadian Insurance Industry. - Institutional Investor.  Bwahahahahaha

Welcome to Tax Breaklandia - Bloomberg.  This is going to blow a large hole in the U.S. Treasury.

Europe’s Most Important River Is Running Dry – Bloomberg

Farms, More Productive Than Ever, Are Poisoning Drinking Water in Rural America – Wall Street Journal

Early January Links

It looks like the National Championship game might end up 54-52 or something.  Here are a few links for your reading pleasure:

The Ball Family Circus Comes To Ohio - Deadspin

Chicago Catholics struggle to build future with fewer priests as parishes shrink, cash dwindles – Chicago Tribune.  Not surprising, but kind of sad anyway.

St. Louis city and county: Divorced in 1876. Remarried in 2020? – St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  The massive number of municipalities in St. Louis County is crazy.  One only has 13 residents.

Wettest-Year Records for 2018, Take Two – Weather Underground.  So much rain.

Scientists Have 'Hacked Photosynthesis' In Search Of More Productive Crops - The Salt

Putin says Russia will supply soy beans, poultry meat to China – Reuters.  Probably just bullshit to rock the boat politically, but we really are shooting ourselves in the foot. 

The Farm Bureau: Big Oil’s Unnoticed Ally Fighting Climate Science and Policy – Inside Climate News

Fracking’s Secret Problem—Oil Wells Aren’t Producing as Much as Forecast – Wall Street Journal

Trump Has Promised to Bring Jobs Back. His Tariffs Threaten to Send Them Away. - New York Times.  The steel and aluminum tariffs just punish metal consuming manufacturers.  More foot-shooting.

How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success – The New Yorker  

Donald Trump Was Never Vetted - New York Magazine.   When people are voting for him because The Apprentice convinced them that Trump is a genius businessman, I'm not sure more vetting was going to convince them he's a fuckup.

American Exceptionalism Is a Dangerous Myth – New York Magazine. 

The Businesspeople Who Have Helped Enable Steve King’s Rise - Iowa Informer.  Looks like a who's who of Iowa business.

This Map Shows Where in the World the U.S. Military Is Combatting Terrorism – Smithsonian.  It would almost be easier to show where the U.S. military isn't.

End of Year Links and New Year's Resolutions

2018 was a pretty bad year, both for this blog and for the world.  2019 might be better, but I have my doubts.  Here are a bunch of links I've saved from the last part of the year:

My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley – NPR Only A Game.  This is a great read.

#CardCorner: 1958 Topps Wally Post - National Baseball Hall of Fame.  Local legend from St. Henry, Ohio.

Nebraska vs. Oklahoma State in an old-school battle in South Dakota? How did that happen? - Omaha World-Herald.  Here because of the gym.

The game of their lives was 25 years ago. They’re still replaying it in their minds. - Washington Post

How Christmas evolved from raucous carnival to domestic holiday - The Economist  

A Storm and a Strike Hit Blueberry Giant's Global Supply Plans – Bloomberg

TREADING WATER | Unfocused and underfunded, goal of cleaner water falters – Cedar Rapids Gazette

Uncertain fate awaits quirky Rochester landmark – Minnesota Public Radio

40 million Americans depend on the Colorado River. It’s drying up. - Grist

As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the world’s “extraction colony” - Texas Tribune

Oklahoma’s Future Rests in the Hands of Two Very Different Oil Billionaires - Bloomberg

Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell – Wired 

The Genius Neuroscientist Who Might Hold the Key to True AI – Wired

Bizarre ‘dark fluid’ with negative mass could dominate the universe – what my research suggests – The Conversation 

Indiana's 'broken arrow' — that time 5 nuclear bombs got caught fire – Indianapolis Star.  How we survived the Cold War I will never know.

Austin Rising - Louisville Courier-Journal.  A series on Austin, Indiana, where an HIV outbreak in 2015 linked to IV drug use shocked the Midwest.

Losing the Farm - Belt Magazine 

The Corruption of the Republican Party – George Packer

The Plot Against America – The Atlantic.  Paul Manafort

A college kid running for 13th Ward alderman gets a lesson in the Chicago Way – Chicago Tribune

The godfather of fake news – BBC

King of the Low Road – The Weekly Standard

These charts show how Democrats represent the growing modern economy – and how Republicans are left behind - CNBC 

Finally, for the resolutions.  One, I'm going to have to start exercising.  I am not looking forward to that.  Two, I'm going to have to take on a lot of maintenance projects this year.  Finally, I'm going to try to get back into regular blogging, with at least two posts a week.  We'll see how that goes.

The Day After

Wow.  I had gone into the election thinking that voters nationwide would have seen through Trump's lies and bigotry.  People in cities and suburbs did, but folks in rural areas just want to drink from the fire hose (with Steve King, how bigoted does one have to be to lose?).  In that respect, Trump was vindicated, so we can expect more of the same in the next two years.  In Ohio, Republicans cruised.  No incumbents in the state legislature lost.  Based on the Kansas and Wisconsin examples, the Republican party has to completely drive the state into the ground before they lose a statewide election.  I personally was hoping to avoid that, but I think that is what will happen.  For example, our next State Representative, like much of the rest of the legislature, wants to roll back Medicaid expansion.  The only reason the state expanded Medicaid was because John Kasich did it by executive action.  Now we have to depend on Mike DeWine and the health care lobby to keep it in place.  If it were to be rolled back, rural areas and the people who live there will suffer, and some places may lose hospitals.  I am sure we will get more useless tax cuts which strip resources from rural areas and put greater burdens on local populations, and more talk about rolling back regulations.  I doubt that much on the regulatory front will actually happen, but I expect you won't see DeWine pushing to deal with algae blooms in Grand Lake St. Mary's or Lake Erie, either.  Overall, rural areas will continue to decline, and they will continue to work to drag the rest of the country down with them. 

Election Day Live Blog

6:03 AM:  Off to the polling place.  I'm making sure my ballot gets cast.  Don't worry, I won't be casting a single one for the Republican Party cult.

5:33 PM:  Just got home from work and feeding the cows.  Cracked a Troegs Scratch Series #342 Fest Lager.  It is pretty damn good.  I've got some work to do yet starting the grill and wood stove and feeding the calves.  I should be settled in around 6.  That's when the polls close in parts of Kentucky and Indiana (which are practically the same state).

6:01 PM:  Fire is taking off and the grill is warming up.  Polls are closed in most of Indiana.  As is always the case, I don't expect anything good to come out of Indiana.  Hopefully Joe Donnelly can eke out a win, but I am personally chalking the seat up as a loss to the GOP. Maybe I will be surprised.

6:18 PM:  Just heard an interview on NPR with a FreeDumb caucus member who was repeating Jim Jordan's talking points about doing what they promise, even if it is miserably stupid.  About the time I was wondering who it was, they said it was my useless Congressman, Warren Davidson. Fuck me.

6:44 PM:  The first two stories on Marketplace tonight were about Foxconn and Amazon HQ2.  One thing I would like to see come to an end are subsidy giveaways to multinational corporations.  Maybe a Scott Walker loss will make politicians think twice about making outrageously foolish deals.  Then again, lots of suckers think Donald Trump is some kind of expert negotiator.  Maybe they ought to read about his negotiating prowess for The Art of the Deal.

6:53 PM:  I wonder what the race will be the first one that news organizations call?  Maybe Vermont governor (a Republican)?

6:59 PM: Just started on a  Sam '76 out of the Sam Adams Winter Classics variety pack.

7:00 PM:  CNN called Bernie and Tim Kaine as winners.  How many times will we be told we are waiting on results from Lake County, Indiana (home of Gary)?  Interesting side note, Crown Point is the county seat of Lake County.

7:05 PM:  While we wait for results to come in, I emphasize enough how important it is that we see some results that indicate Trump's ridiculous minority and refugee scapegoating doesn't work.  I'm afraid we'll see a Senate result which will cause him to double down on the crazy for the next two years.  I'm not sure I could get through that with my sanity.

7:09 PM:  Polls in Ohio close in about 20 minutes.   Because of radical gerrymandering, we only have one (OH-12) or two (OH-1, which is doubtful) potential seat changes, barring a serious wave.  The statewide races should be very interesting, though.  I'm almost optimistic there.

7:15 PM:  Election night distraction.  Wes Goubeaux, I know you are looking forward to picking up some Reds 1939 merchandise:

1939 Home. #RedsThreads pic.twitter.com/MZfaV1Ou7F

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) November 5, 2018

7:21 PM: Also, this:

The Reds proudly commemorate the 150th anniversary of professional baseball in Cincinnati during the 2019 season. pic.twitter.com/PO2JX4NU7G

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) November 5, 2018

Good video

7:26 PM: No matter who wins, it may be a tough slog economically between today and the 2020 election

Word to the wise. We have endured two 10% corrections in the same year for all three major averages. This has only happened in 1973, 1974, 1987, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2008. All but 1987 signalled recession, but that wasn't a pretty picture either.

— David Rosenberg (@EconguyRosie) November 6, 2018

7:30 PM: Polls are closed in Ohio.

7:33 PM:  I would expect the race is called for the Ohio 80th House district.  Even though she really didn't campaign after the primary, I'm sure Jena Powell will win.  That is unfortunate, because she is a truly useless right-wing nut.  Her opponent, DJ Byrnes put together a couple of nice ads, but this district is ridiculously skewed to right-wing nutters.

7:39 PM:  Kent State vs. Buffalo is on ESPNU.

7:44 PM:  I can't believe college basketball is already here.

7:52 PM:  My county's results came in.  Powell beat Byrnes 68%-32%, while only repeating tripe about lowering taxes and cutting regulations that strangle business.  I hate how big of suckers rural voters are.

7:57 PM:  My county is so right-wing.  Jim Renacci won 57% of the vote even though his campaign was a joke.  

8:00 PM:   Luckily, the rest of the state appears to have elected Sherrod Brown.  Overall, Democrats seem to be doing well so far, nationally.

8:10 PM:  I still can't believe how big the rural/urban divide is.  Why do rural voters buy into the Republican bullshit about taxes when wealthier folks in cities and suburbs don't?

8:14 PM:  I would like to see a Democratic sweep of Governors' races in the Midwest.  It might be doable.

8:18 PM:  When I was signing the election register, I saw my sister's name listed as an active voter, even though she's been out of the state for almost 20 years.  She hadn't voted today.  I tried checking the Ohio Secretary of State's listing of registered voters.  I was there, but she wasn't.  All I could figure was that she was one of the voters who got purged in recent years for not voting, but maybe her name was restored because the ACLU won a suit against the Secretary of State for removing voters from the rolls.  Either that or my county is just incompetent, which is also likely.

8:24 PM:  Indiana is looking bad for Donnelly, and thus, for the United States.  Geez, I can't stand Hoosiers or Donald Trump.

8:34 PM:  Why do rural voters, who claim they don't like how their local economies are going, keep voting for Republicans who never, ever give them any help?  I just don't get it.

8:35 PM:  Well, I don't get it if I don't take into account bigotry.

8:36 PM:  I see the billionaire challenger in Illinois beat the nearly billionaire incumbent.  Unfortunately, Illinois residents will get four more years of dysfunction.  On the plus side, Rahner will probably be one of the few recent former governors of Illinois not to go to prison.

8:40 PM: Goddamn Florida.

8:42 PM:  If Democrats aren't working tomorrow to register voters for 2020, they are insane.  Donald Trump and his idiot base must lose.

8:44 PM:  In good news, felons may have voting rights restored in Florida.

8:48 PM:  Indiana is a shithole.  Braun and Pence win.

8:52 PM:  Things are not looking good for Democrats right now.

8:57 PM:  Going to have to speed up the beer consumption.

9:03 PM:  I still struggle so much with the idea that rural areas keep electing politicians who have no interest in helping out their constituents.  It is just like the Brexit abortion.  Rural voters are committing economic suicide electing conservatives.

9:11 PM:  Trump is going to be off the hook for the foreseeable future.  The United States is going to be screwed.

9:13 PM:  This is insane.  Who are all of these GOP voters, and why do they hate rationality?

9:17 PM:  County-by-county results do not show Ohio suburbs breaking for Democrats.

9:23 PM:  Donald Trump campaigned with an insane freakout about the caravan, and mountains of lies.  Why on earth do people support him?  Are they as big of assholes as he is?

9:29 PM:  CNN is currently building up Beto O'Rourke.  I dread watching his lead slip away, too, as it is one of the few bright spots on the map right now.

9:36 PM:  So far it looks like Republican voters in Ohio didn't find out who the GOP was pushing for state Supreme Court.  One bright spot for Democrats so far.

9:43 PM:  If Democrats don't find those 1.6 million felons in Florida and get them registered to vote, they do not deserve to be called a political party.

9:52 PM:  I understand why Ted Cruz is so unpopular, but how in the fuck can anybody like Donald Trump?

10:00 PM:  It looks like urban and suburban voters are going to carry Democrats across the line to gain control of the House, which is a very good thing.  However, rural results are so depressing that I'm chalking 2018 up as a loss.  Rural areas are going to suffer miserably in the future.

10:02 PM:  I see Kris Kobach is projected to lose.  Thank God.

10:04 PM:  Dem candidate wins Michigan, but Scott Walker is leading.  WTF is wrong with Wisconsin?

10:09 PM:  Warning to Ohio: Kansas has discovered how fucked up Republican governance is.  Are we going to have to follow them clear to the bottom before we get some goddamn sense?

10:18 PM: Ted Cruz wins.  Today sucks.

10:31 PM:  How in the fuck is Mike DeWine winning?  His campaign was godawful.

10:40 PM:  The rural/urban split keeps getting worse, and rural voters keep getting more and more wrong.  Brexit 2.0.

10:41 PM:  Republican plus third party vote is 55-45 in Ohio.  What the hell is going on?

10:59 PM:
Truth, and dominating in rural areas, but getting crushed outside of them.

Republicans aren’t running on taxes anymore. They’re running on bigotry. https://t.co/vXLXhm8ZOq pic.twitter.com/QmvC7hhLSC

— Slate (@Slate) November 7, 2018 

11:02 PM:  Ohio really feels like Indiana tonight.

11:26 PM:  Right now, all I've got is the hope that Scott Walker loses.

11:29 PM: 

That's what he says about all of his bankrupt enterprises https://t.co/BS7FzikZkl

— Daniel Larison (@DanielLarison) November 7, 2018 

 I needed that laugh.

11:35 PM:  Oh, I also forgot about the possibility Steve King might lose.

12:01AM:  There are a lot of things going on tonight.  Somehow, Republicans swept all of the statewide executive offices.  Oddly, I didn't really see any campaign ads for state Supreme Court justices, and they lost both seats (it appears).  That is one tiny bright spot in a very depressing bunch of electoral result in Ohio.  Regionally, Indiana is horrible as always.  Michigan looks pretty good, as does Minnesota.  Iowa could go either way, but it looks to remain with a Republican governor, but they lost at least one Congressional seat.  If Scott Walker loses, I'll be smiling.  Nationally, our Constitutional dysfunction gets worse.  We have a popular vote loser sitting in the White House, while a minority of the population holds the Senate.  It also appears the Democrats crushed Republicans nationally in the House.  This will allow the Republicans to continue to stack the courts with lifetime appointments, giving them a generation of control of the only branch of government that can prevent Executive overreach.  Additionally, the rural/urban split worsened.  Nothing good will come of this.  I dread our political (and economic) future.

12:08 AM:  Also, racism won where it normally wins.  That saddens me.

12:12 AM:  Why in the fuck is that useless sack of shit Rick Santorum on CNN?

12:20 AM:  Would Rick Santorum please shut the fuck up? 

12:27 AM:  How does a complete dumbass like Rick Santorum dominate the debate on CNN?  Every other person at that table is smarter than him and has more useful stuff to say.  This is a perfect example of what is wrong with our political discourse.  I'm going over to Twitter and drinking until I have to go to sleep.

Election Eve Links

Tomorrow is the big day.  It is the chance, after two long years, to give Donald Trump, and the Republican Party which foisted him on us, a giant fuck you.  I'll be going in first thing in the morning to cast my straight-ticket Democratic ballot.  It might make a difference for U.S. Senator and the statewide positions, but it will be meaningless for Congress and State House and Senate.  But it will be cathartic.  It is already raining, so after work tomorrow, I'll get the animals fed, make supper, then crack my first beer and turn on the TV and start blogging the election results.  Please tune in, and feel free to comment.  In the time between now and then, here are a few stories for you to enjoy:

The Southernization of the Midwest - Benjamin Studabaker.  I've resisted GOP efforts to turn Ohio into Alabama for a long time.

Wisconsin's $4.1 Billion Foxconn Boondoggle - The Verge

Rural America’s Own Private Flint: Polluted Water Too Dangerous to Drink - New York Times

Trump the Revealer - The Big Picture.  Excellent post by Ritholtz.

The President's Lies - The Atlantic   

Something's Happening in Texas - The Atlantic 

Can the Republic Strike Back? - Andrew Sullivan

Vote against all Republicans.  Every single one. - Max Boot!?

What the 2018 Campaign Looks Like in Your Hometown - Bloomberg

Mid-June Links, Part II

More stories for you, as I avoid working in the heat:

This ex-Detroit football player is vowing to become a nun - Detroit Free Press

Ashes of an industry: A Pennsylvania tradition is dying, one baseball bat at a time - Philadelphia Inquirer

No more cathode ray tubes from China, says Trump Administration - Asia Times

Philadelphia Shipyard Struggles to Survive on Order Drought - Wall Street Journal.  Calling Donald Trump....

Billions in U.S. solar projects shelved after Trump panel tariff - Reuters.  I guess if your goal is to bail out coal, this is a win.  If your goal is to have a sane energy policy, this is idiotic.

When North Dakota Farmers Blew up Partisan Politics - Zocalo Public Square.  Nonpartisan League.  I knew North Dakota has a State Bank.  I didn't realize they have an elevator and flour mill.

The Failed State of Franklin - ThoughtCo

The bishop and the brothels – Wellcome Collection

Farm Bill Targets Food Stamps -- But Not Handouts to Well-Off Farmers – Governing.  For Republicans, that is a feature, not a bug.

Lone Star Rising - Fortune.  Fracking in the Permian Basin.  The avoidance of Peak Oil means we will probably drill until the climate is completely wrecked.  It might be a good think I don't have kids.

T. Boone Pickens on Selling the Ranch - Texas Monthly

The preventable tragedy of D’ashon Morris – Dallas Morning News.  Think of this when you hear Republicans say they are pro-life.

How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People - The Cut

These Harvard Kids Got The Lesson of Their Lives in the Heartland - New York Post.  A noble effort, but I don't know how much can be gleaned by these junkets.

The Strange Case of the Missing Joyce Scholar – New York Times.  The line between genius and madness is often blurry.

America’s Largest Private Company Reboots a 153-Year-Old Strategy – Bloomberg

Mid-June Links, Part I

That's right, I'm not dead yet.  I was just busy side dressing corn, baling hay, going to graduation parties, working at the town festival, celebrating my birthday and generally sitting around.  Here are a bunch of stories to try to make it up to you, with more to come tomorrow (or maybe the next few days):

Why Canadian milk infuriates Donald Trump - The Guardian.  After years of getting crushed, Canada's system probably sounds pretty appealing to U.S. dairymen.

Crisis on the High Plains: The Loss of America's Largest Aquifer - The Ogallala - University of  Denver Water Law Review.  U.S. agriculture creates so many of its own problems. 

Plants repeatedly got rid of their ability to obtain their own nitrogen - Ars Technica

New tariffs spark fears in WNY: 'It makes me a lot less competitive' - Buffalo News

A Senior White House Official Defines the Trump Doctrine: ‘We’re America, Bitch’ - The Atlantic.  I'm sure that'll work out well for us.

Trump’s Got a Crazy New Plan to Save the Dying Coal Industry - Mother Jones.  There is never a shortage of terrible ideas in this administration.

Emails show cooperation among EPA, climate-change deniers - AP.  Also, corruption.

‘He Pretty Much Gave In to Whatever They Asked For’ - Politico.  Our Negotiator-in-Chief.  You have to read about The Art of the Deal and The Apprentice.

Catholic sister's retirement marks end of Sisters of Charity affiliation with Sacred Heart - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  There is a lot of this going on.

Trump’s Right-Hand Troll - The Atlantic. America's most famous Duke alum.

America’s Boxcar Pool Has a Leak in CSX - Wall Street Journal

The Engines of the Largest Container Ships in the World, and Challenges their Manufacturers Face - Wolf Street.  You have to click through to see the crankshaft photo.

What Unites and Divides Urban, Suburban and Rural Communities - Pew Research Center

US rivers drawn to show average annual flow - Map Porn (via Lynn Sosnoskie)

Mid Week Mini-Links - May 2018 Edition

I had a little difficulty finding many good stories, but I've got some:

Stronach Group COO Tim Ritvo sees grim future for Preakness at Pimlico - Baltimore Sun.  This makes me sad.

Choking On Our Harvest: Threats Loom Over Global Food Trade – Bloomberg.  A lot of good graphics.

Big Ag turns to peas to meet soaring global protein demand – Reuters

Editorial: U.S. House embarrassed itself with its mishandling of the farm bill - Omaha World-Herald.  The GOP owns this train wreck.  They had plenty of money for corporate tax cuts, but they just can't resist kicking the poor while shoveling out piles of money to farmers and rural residents.

For Future Health Policies, Trump Administration Adds a Rural Focus - Governing.  Maybe the Ohio GOP shouldn't be pushing to roll back Medicaid expansion.  I think the lack of Medicaid expansion (along with ending reimbursement for unpaid care linked to the expected expansion), as opposed to excessive regulation, led to rural hospital closures.

Gambling Ruling May Make USDA Reports More Exciting - Progressive Farmer 

The Last Days of the Blue-Blood Harvest - The Atlantic 

Meeting Resistance – Science

Public Demands Investigation of Why F.B.I. Infiltrators in Trump Campaign Failed to Prevent Him from Being Elected – Borowitz Report

Scott Pruitt’s approach to pollution control will make the air dirtier and Americans less healthy - The Conversation

Mid-May Late Week Links

More good reads for you:

Gov. John Kasich wants to crack down on phosphorus runoff that feeds Lake Erie algal blooms – Cleveland Plain Dealer.  This isn't going to magically go away.

Warming Planet Could Mean Bigger Corn Crops for American Farmers – Bloomberg.  Just what we need-more corn.

California is turning farms into carbon-sucking factories – Grist.  Farmers might be in for fighting climate change if it means more sweet, sweet government handouts.

Warming Waters Push Fish To Cooler Climes, Out Of Some Fishermen's Reach – The Salt

NASA Satellites Reveal Major Shifts in Global Freshwater – NASA.gov

Louisiana Wants To Use The Muddy Mississippi To Build Up Its Coast – NPR

The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy - The Atlantic. 

The Untold Story of Robert Mueller's Time in Combat - Wired.  Who would you rather your children turn out like: Robert Mueller or Donald Trump?  If you said Trump, I sure hope you don't have kids.

Sulfur Dioxide Damages Lungs, and Scott Pruitt Is Letting More of It in Our Air – Mother Jones  It is ridiculous that existing plants sometimes never have had to meet most environmental regulations.

Too Big To Fine, Too Small To Fight Back – Texas Observer.  Sometimes it seems when Republicans are in charge they really work to make government the enemy.

Which Poor People Shouldn’t Have to Work for Aid? – The Upshot.  I'll give you one guess.  More on Michigan's plan for letting rural poor folks stay on Medicaid without meeting work requirements. 

‘Blue Wave’ Has Been a Trickle Outside Largest Cities - The Daily Yonder.  Yes, rural areas are responsible for Trump.

Trump vs. “The Deep State” – The New Yorker.  More like Trump vs. competent governance.

A Wildfire Likely Spawned a Severe Thunderstorm in Texas – DAMWeather

Derby Day Links

More stories squeezed around planting, fixing the planter and working at the town job:

 Eating Dirt on Kentucky Derby Day - Bloomberg

The Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code - Bloomberg

These Stories Of Horse Racing Gamblers Will Get You Psyched For The Kentucky Derby - Bloomberg.  It's a podcast, but as you can see, Bloomberg is all-in on the Derby.

Local Dallas Sportscaster Goes Viral For His 'Unplugged' Commentary - All Things Considered.  The part about his racist dad saying the one black family he knows is good and different from all the blacks he doesn't know is pure Midwestern bigotry.  I don't know if I could count how many times I've heard that. Sometimes it includes a statement that that black person or family agrees with that person about other blacks.

The innovation turning desert sand into farmland - BBC

Minnesota experiment upends notions about how plants will offset rising CO2 - Minn Post

On The Hunt For The Elusive Morel Mushroom In Ohio's Appalachian Country  - The Salt

Here's why Michigan Medicaid work requirements will kill people - Detroit Free Press.  Exemptions for rural counties, but not for poor urban areas.  That's the Republican party for you.

How Criminals Steal $37 Billion a Year from America’s Elderly - Bloomberg.  I would like to know what countries' GDP are smaller than the total economic activity generated in the US by crime and fraud.  I would guess it is the size of a medium-sized developed nation

Paul Ryan Just Got Trounced By a Priest - Charles Pierce and Ryan reverses, will keep House chaplain in place - Politico.  As if I needed to add anti-Catholic bigotry to my reasons to hate the GOP.  I did enjoy that more than one political commentator said that the moral of the story is that you don't fuck with a Jesuit (or The Society-God bless Catholic culture).

A Pruitt Aide's Attack on Zinke Angers the White House - The Atlantic.  So the cabinet secretary I hate the most had an underling try to undermine the cabinet secretary I hate the second-most.  That seems about like what I'd expect from the Trump administration.  Even they can understand who the assholes are.

This Map Shows Every State's Biggest Export - How Much (via Ritholtz).  Not too hard to figure out where Poet is based.

Late April Weekend Links

More stories for your perusal:

The Man Who Brought Down Lance Armstrong – The Atlantic  

Iowa's minor league baseball teams team up to help repair the vandalized Field of Dreams infield - Des Moines Register

Local Courts Lift Arkansas Weedkiller Ban, Creating Chaos - The Salt.  Chaos seems to be standard for agriculture right now...

Exclusive: U.S. sorghum armada U-turns at sea after China tariffs - Reuters

The Maraschino Mogul’s Secret Life – The New Yorker 

OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world — then it all went wrong - The Verge

Canary in the Coal Pond - Propublica
 
Engineers Are Leaving Trump’s America for the Canadian Dream – Bloomberg.  MAGA is effectively MAWA.  No greatness about it.

Palantir Knows Everything About You – Bloomberg

Ranked: The Best and Worst State Economies - Visual Capitalist.  If there is a correlation between tax rate and ranking, it appears to be a positive correlation.

Not-Quite-Time-To-Plant Links

This weather is pretty frustrating, but eventually we will be hitting the fields.  Until them, here are some things to read:

What Hurricane Maria Didn’t Wreck: Puerto Rican Baseball – New York Times

In North Carolina, Hog Waste Is Becoming A Streamlined Fuel Source – The Salt

Scientists Want to Replace Pesticides With Bacteria – Bloomberg 

The Megafire Burning in Oklahoma - The Atlantic 

Climate Boundary Shifting East Due to Global Warming – Drovers Magazine (h/t the old boss)

Climate change: A farmer’s call to action - Indiana Prairie Farmer

Why New York City Stopped Building Subways – City Lab

San Francisco’s Big Seismic Gamble – New York Times

The Quest for the Next Billion-Dollar Color – Bloomberg. A much more interesting article on pigments than you would expect. 

Decades-Old Graph Problem Yields to Amateur Mathematician - Quanta

Tensions grow between conservation, commerce in Ohio’s state forests – Columbus Dispatch

The Warrior at the Mall - New York Times (h/t Kaye)

Ryan Zinke’s Great American Fire Sale – The New Yorker.  The only guy in Trump's cabinet who can give Scott Pruitt a run for his money as chief asshole.              

Everyone Wants To Go Home During Extra Innings — Maybe Even The Umps - FiveThirtyEight 

Traditional Tax Day Links

Here are the latest stories for you:

James Harden Isn't Playing Around – GQ 

As dairy crisis crushes farmers, Wisconsin's rural identity in jeopardy - Dairy farmers have been getting pummeled.  I feel awful for them.

Republican Farm Bill Calls On Many SNAP Recipients To Work Or Go To School - The Salt.  Subsidies for me, but not for thee. 

Texas is making billions from oil and gas drilling, but counties say rural roads are being destroyed - Texas Tribune

Be Good or Be Gone: The Legend of McSorley’s Old Ale House - Modern Drunkard.  I've never been to McSorley's.  I will need to go the next time I'm in New York.

How a Defense of Christianity Revolutionized Brain Science - Nautilus  

Does Tech Need Silicon Valley? - California Sunday Magazine  

Two Decades of War Have Eroded the Morale of America’s Troops – The Atlantic.  This is a must-read.  My position has always been that the best way to honor our troops is to not send them to be maimed or killed in pointless, unwinnable wars.

A Saudi Prince’s Quest to Remake the Middle East - The New Yorker.  The man's PR just isn't good enough to cover for what he's really up to.

Michael Cohen and the End Stage of the Trump Presidency - The New Yorker.  I don't know, almost 46% of the voters in 2016 voted for the obviously crooked businessman, I'm not sure why even more evidence that he's a crook is going to convince them they've been conned. 

Trump’s Company Is Suing Towns Across the Country to Get Breaks on Taxes — “Trump, Inc.” Podcast – ProPublica.  See above for why voters won't change their opinions on this asshole. 

Is It the Spending or the Taxes? Mostly the Spending, But ... – Justin Fox.  In honor of Paul Ryan's (aka Bizarro Robin Hood) retirement from robbing from the poor to give to the rich.

Amid Trade Feud, Recycling Is in Danger of Landing on Trash Pile – Wall Street Journal  

Where Blue-Collar America Is Strongest - FiveThirtyEight.  This map reflects the best farm economy in a generation.  We've seen the peak, and it is going to be worse going forward. 

Good Friday Links

Here are the latest stories I found interesting:

What the Spending Bill Could Mean for Minor-League Baseball Players – The New Yorker 

How Loyola used information and skill -- not luck -- to reach the Final Four – ESPN

Blackhawks Play 36-Year-Old Local Accountant As Emergency Goalie - Deadspin

Flint investigator says greed and fraud led to drinking water crisis – Detroit Free Press.  I'm guessing the state attorney general (who is running for governor) won't find the wrongdoing on the state level that I think probably occurred.

A Prefabricated Tragedy - Slate.  A bit simplistic in parts, but it makes some interesting points. 

The best federal agency you've never heard of: It helps manufacturers and now Trump wants to kill it - Philadelphia Inquirer

The robots are killing Tesla – Business Insider.  That's not all that's killing it, but the piece makes some very interesting points about automation.

New Ecological Economics: Superorganism and Ultrasociality-How the agricultural revolution changed the trajectory of our social and economic evolution - Evonomics

The End of Winter - The New Yorker 

More Than 75 Percent of Earth’s Land Areas Are ‘Broken,’ Major Report Finds – Motherboard

Chicago's Awful Divide - The Atlantic  

Scott Pruitt’s Dirty Politics – The New Yorker.  I hate this man with the energy of a thousand suns.

The Brutal Origins of Gun Rights – The New Republic 

Republicans Promised to Cut the Deficit. It’s Only Getting Worse – Bloomberg.  Continuing a nearly 40 year tradition.  There are some great charts about how "welfare reform" isn't going to close the deficit.

More March Links

A few stories that caught my eye over the weekend and the first day of work this week:

For Cincinnati Reds star Joey Votto, spring is about the process, not the batting average - Cincinnati Enquirer

To Save Whales, Maine's Iconic Lobster Industry May Have To Change - The Salt

How Syngenta won the war over weedkillers - Politico

China needs more water. So it's building a rain-making network three times the size of Spain – South China Morning Post.  You have to click through just for the pictures, and the description of the "rocket technology" in use.  Looks crazier than hell to me.

Elon Musk Is the Henry Ford of His Age. That's Bad. – Bloomberg

Rural hospital shutdowns force communities to take care of their own – CNBC

Can the Most Hated Man in West Virginia Win? – Politico.  This dude is too ridiculous to be a cartoon villain.  Why do Republican voters flock to the biggest pieces of shit and believe every ridiculous lie they tell?

The Battle For Paradise – The Intercept.  Rich assholes versus Puerto Ricans.

Land of the Lawless - Lapham's Quarterly

In California's rural, conservative north, there are big dreams for cleaving the state – LA Times.  If rural voters are for it, it is probably a very bad idea.

How Trump's Protectionism Could Backfire - New York Times.  Great maps.

Retirees Reshape Where Americans Live – Wall Street Journal.  I don't really care about the retiree angle.  I just wanted to show the map of where rural areas are declining in population.  Downstate Illinois looks awful.

Pi Day Mini-Links

I hope you had a great Pi Day.  I figured I would throw a few links up, especially since the first one involves a high seed that might not be in the tournament very long:

The Nun in Loyola-Chicago’s Huddle Has a Few Things to Say – New York Times 

Why No. 1 Virginia’s Plodding Pace Makes It Ripe for an Upset – Wall Street Journal

The EU Is Going After the U.S. Cranberry Industry – Bloomberg.  Targeting Paul Ryan's home state.

The Number of Monarch Butterflies Wintering in Mexico Is Down Again – Modern Farmer. For what it's worth, I've been avoiding the milkweed when mowing waterways and scrubland.  I've noticed more Monarchs the last couple years than I saw in previous years.

When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home - The New Yorker 

Stephen Hawking Is Still Underrated – The Atlantic  

Pi Day 2018: the math of pi explained, as simply as possible - Vox

Trump's mining giveaway – Politico.  There is no better example of the ineptitude and corruption of Congress than the fact that a law as shitty as the General Mining Act of 1872 is still the law of the land after 146 years.

Canadian Amateurs Discovered a New Type of Aurora.  It’s named Steve. - The Atlantic  

Early March Links

Here are a few of my favorite stories from the last week or so:

We X-Rayed Some MLB Baseballs. Here’s What We Found. - FiveThirtyEight

Sweet Redemption As Men's Curling Team Brings Olympic Gold Home To Duluth - NPR

Schuyler, Nebraska, school officials call state intervention a 'scarlet letter'- Omaha World-Herald.  The state declared the school was low-performing because of changing demographics.  Translation: the town has a meatpacking plant so the school-age population is is over 85% immigrant.

California Fruit Will ‘Die on the Vine’ After ICE Raids, Labor Warns - Bloomberg.  Stupid.

Harvard Blew $1 Billion in Bet on Tomatoes, Sugar, and Eucalyptus - Bloomberg

Jerry and Marge Go Large - Highline (h/t my former boss).  Good story about a screwy lottery game that got gamed.

The Rise Of Yeast: How Civilization Was Shaped By Sugar Fungi - The Salt

Impact of warming seas felt by northeastern fisheries - Toledo Blade

Some of the World's Biggest Lakes Are Drying Up. Here's Why. - National Geographic

The Slow-Motion Catastrophe Threatening 350-Year-Old Farms - The Atlantic 

The Man Who Bottled Evolution - MSU Today

How Trump’s Hudson Tunnel Feud Threatens the National Economy - Bloomberg

The Radical Left-Wing Theory That the Government Has Unlimited Money - Vice.  Well, not so radical.  It is Modern Monetary Theory.

Who Was Marjory Stoneman Douglas? - Portside

'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie - The Atlantic 

WH quietly issues report to Congress showing benefits of regulations - The Hill

Trump steel tariffs to hit these 8 countries the hardest — and China isn’t one of them - MarketWatch.  Actually, they will probably hit the U.S. the hardest.